Trump declaration of Greenland framework deal met with scepticism as doubts persist

Key Highlights

• He later called it “a concept of a deal” over Greenland when he spoke to business network CNBC soon after Wall Street closed. Trump says Canada should be grateful for ‘freebies’ it gets from the USRead more“The day ended better than it started,” said Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
• “Now, let’s sit down and find out how we can address the American security concerns in the Arctic while respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark,” he said. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, also welcomed Trump’s decision, but Rutte, who negotiated Wednesday’s deal with Trump, issued a note of caution, saying there remained “a lot of work to be done”. When asked by Fox News if Greenland would remain a part of the Kingdom of Denmark under the deal, Rutte said the issue had not come up, and offered few further details about the agreement.
• Nato spokesperson Allison Hart said talks on the framework Trump was referring to would focus on ensuring Arctic security “through the collective efforts of allies.”But there was anger from some Danish MPs, including Sascha Faxe who took umbrage with Greenland’s exclusion from Wednesday’s negotiations.“It’s not real negotiations; it’s two men who have had a conversation,” she told Sky News.
• “There can’t be a deal without having Greenland as part of the negotiations.”According to media reports, the compromise deal could see the US granted sovereignty over small pockets of Greenland where military bases are located, with unnamed officials in the Telegraph comparing the proposal to the UK military’s bases in Cyprus, which are regarded as British territory. The framework would also potentially allow the US to mine for rare earth minerals, without seeking permission from Denmark, according to the Telegraph. It remains unclear whether Denmark has signed up to the deal, but on Wednesday night Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament, said that the idea that Nato should have anything to say about the territory’s sovereignty or minerals was “completely out of the question”. After days of ratcheting tensions which signalled the deepest rupture in transatlantic relations in decades – and saw Canadian prime minister Mark Carney issue a stirring eulogy for the rules-based order on Tuesday – Trump’s reasons for apparently backing down remain unclear. Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs, Maria Stenergard, said the work of Europe’s allies has “had an effect” and she reiterated that they would not be “blackmailed”. The Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, called Trump’s decision to waive threatened tariffs against European allies a sign of “de-escalation” and EU leaders.